Cap



April 19, 1966 c. BoNK ETAL CAP Filed Feb. 27. 1964 1176.7 41 INVENTOR CHA /M 50AM 5mm/a RAFow/rz BY ATTORNEY United States Patent O Filed Feb. 27, 1964, Ser. No. 347,955 4 Claims. (Cl. 2--201) Th-is invention relates to an improvement in caps and deals particularly with a type of cap which is capable of keeping the head warm in cold weather and which is fitting heads of lvarious sizes.

'One of the difficulties which is usually expe-rienced by manufacturers of caps .and by stores selling caps lies in the fact that a very considerable inventory must be maintained in order to lit heads of various sizes. AIt is difficult for either the manufacturer or purchaser to accurately determine the number of caps of each size which will be sold. Over numerous years it is possible for both the manufacturer and .the -storekeeper to gain experience which will enable them to guess more accurately than would othenwise be possible, but it is still necessary for the storekeeper to maintain an inventory of each size and in each style of cap.

During recent years, caps have been produced which include one or more elastic segments which permit a hat of a certain size to Ibe used on heads which vary somewhat in size. However, the rangeA of sizes which a single cap will fit has been somewhat limited; and while it has been possible to materially reduce the necessary inventory f caps, it is `still necessary for the store owner to stock caps of different sizes.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a cap which is made virtually entirely of resilient material and which accordingly may comfortably t a wide variety of head sizes. As a result, the inventory which a storekeeper must keep on hand may be materially reduced. Furthermore, with this arrangement, it is unnece-ssary for .the manufacturer to materially reduce the variety of cap sizes which are available for sale.

It is a further feature lof the present invention that the cap may be produced at a very low cost of production. In normal production, the cap is made of two simple pieces one of which is elastic and stretchable while the other part is relatively inelastic and un-stretchable. By combining the two pieces of material, the cap is formed.

A -feature of the present invention resides in the provision of a hat construction in which the body portion of elastic material is generally rectangular in form, two opposed edges being secured together along Ia seam to form a tubular body. One end of the sleeve is closed by securing together the edges of the material along the top of lthe blank. The transverse top seam is formed intersecting the iirst top seam at right angles. The end thus formed forms the exterior of the crown of the hat.

A further feature of th-e present invention resides in the provision of a simple and effective means of forming an inner crown at the opposite end of the elastic sleeve. This is accomplished by merely attaching the marginal edge of a relatively inelastic disk of slightly oval outline to the remaining of the sleeve. This crown portion of the sleeve is .then forced inwardly until it substantially contacts the first formed exposed crown of the cap, cutting the length of Ithe sleeve in about half by this inversion process. The open lower end of the sleeve is then doubled outwardly of the upper portion thereof to form a cap having side walls of four thicknesses of material. The outer portions of these side walls may be partially unfolded if desired to extend lower upon the head.

These Iand other objects .and no-vel features of the present invention will be more clearly and fully set forth in the following specification and claims.

3,246,340 Patented Apr. 19, Y.1966

In the drawings forming a part of the specification.

FIGURE 1 is a perspective .view in its completed form.

FIGURE 2 is a vertical sectional view through the cap illustrated in FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 3 is a diagrammatic view of `the blank or pattern from which the wall portion of the cap is produced.

lFIGURE 4 is an inverted or reversed view of an end of the cap during construction of the cap.

FIGURE 5 is a perspective lview o-f the completed cap before it is folded into the form illustrated in FIG- URE 1.

FIGURE 6 is an enlarged detail of a portion of the inside crown.

FIGURE 7 is an enlarged sectional detail of the mater-ial `of which the cap body is formed.

The cap A i-s mainly formed by means of a blank of fabric which is indicated in general by the numeral 10 and which is resilient and stretchable particularly in the direction indicated by the double arrow 111. The blank .10 is substantially four .times the length of the side walls of the finished cap and includes a substantially straight lower end 12 and an irregular upper edge 13. The upper edge 13 is substantially the same total width as the lower edge 12, and on opposite sides of the center point y14 the cap is cut along upwardly converging lines 15 and 16 which form an inverted shallow V-shaped form intersecting at the apex 17. The side walls of the cap bow loutwardly and are slightly curved as indicated in FIGURE 3 Aso that the midpoint 18 of the cap is slightly wider than the ends 12 and 13 in the preferred form of construction. -In the formation of the cap body, the body portion `f1() is folded midway between its sides 19 to bring the side edges 19 in contiguous relation and the edges 19 are stitched together to form `a l-ongitudinal seam 20', the stitching being illustrated in FIGURE 4 at 2l. The edges 1'6 adjoining the upper ends of the side edges 19 are also stitched together as indicated at 22 and the edges 15 are similarly stitched together as indicated at 23.

In order to provide a uniform appearance to the top ofthe cap, the body 10 is notched with V-shaped notches along converging cut lines 24 and 28' which extend from the apex of each side of the top toward the bottom edge 11 and in substantially night angular relation to the lower edge 12. The edges of the material on opposite side-s of the notches formed by the cut lines 24 and 2.8 are stitched together to form `cross seams as indicated at 25 in FIGURE 4. As is -indicated in FIGURE 3, the edges l16, 16 and 15, 15 are of greater length than the edges 24, `28. Accordingly, the seams formed by attaching edges 15, V15 and 16, 16 are of greater length than the cross seams formed by attaching edges 24 to edges 28. When the body is inverted Ifro-rn the position illustrated in FIGURE 4 of the drawings, the external seams appear as indicated in FIGURES 1 and 5 of the drawings. In this position, the marginal edges of the seams which have been stitched Itogether are on the interior surface of the closed end sleeve.

A slightly ov-al disk 26 is then attached to the other end of the sleevelike body 10. While shown as a single thickness of material in FIGURE 2 of the drawings, in actual -use the disk 25 comprises two contiguous fabric disks 27 and 29 havin-g a thin layer of cotton or other similar Kmaterial therebetween as indicated at 30. The structure is secured together .by rows of stitching 31 which intersect .at right angles. In other words, the member 26 is a thin quilted -pad .as illustrated in FIGURE 6 rather than a single thickness of material.

The marginal edge of the sleeve body 10 is secured to the marginal edge of the disk 26 by stitching 3-2 which extends through these marginal edges, and through the marginal edges of a binding tape 3-3. lf desired, a but- J ton 34 or other ornament is provided at the center of the crown of the cap at the point of intersectionl of the right langular searns. When completed the cap has the appearance o-f the closed end sleeve illustrated in FIGURE of the drawin-gs. f

The cap is folded int-o completed form by pushing the disk inwardly until it lies against the under surface of the top closure. As indicated in FIGURES l :and 2 of the drawings, the double side wall :thus yformed is again folded `so that the lower portion of the folded sleeve extends .upwardly to encircle the upper portion thereof as shown in the drawings. As a result, the side walls of the completed cap may be made off the desired height to tit any individual head Iby -folding a greater or lesser amount of the sleeve upwardly. i

The cap thus formed may be cut quickly and easily 'due to It-he simple shape of the parts. The body of the cap lmay yalso be stitched together with little effort and in a lVery short period of time. The relatively inflexible inner crown portion maybe fastened to the body very quickly so th-'at the entire cap may be formed in an extremely short period of time. Furthermore, as has been stated, the entire body of the cap with the exception of the inner crown is readily resilient and flexible and will expand to tit a very wide variety of head sizes. Thus a single hat size will t virtually any normal human head.

FIGURE 7 shows the cap material in enlarged detail. ,The outer or exposed layer comprises a fabric such as a knitted ribbed material which stretches in a direction at right angles to the web than in a direction parallel thereto. To this material is laminated -a thin layer of resilient material which is preferably a spongy material such as urethane foam. The resultant laminate -is readily stretchable, particularly in a direction circumferentially of the cap body so that the circumference may be increased to t virtually any head size. The fabric layer is shown in FIGURE 7 by the numeral 40, while the spongy layer is indicated at 41.

In accordance with the patent statutes, the principles of construction and operation of this improvement in caps have been described, and while an endeavor has been made to set forth the best embodiment thereof, it should be understood that changes may be made within the scope of the following claims without departing from the spirit of the invention. v

We claim:

1. A cap comprising,

a generally resilient, stretcha'ble rectangular body of knitted fabric laminated to a layer of thin spongy material secured together along opposite edges to provide an elongated tube, means securing opposite -sides of one end together along a top seam to pro- -vide an elongated cap crown, v

a relatively non-resilient, flexible disk marginally connected to said tube at the other end thereof to form la second end closure, y

said second end closure being folded against the inner surface of said cap crown with substantially one half the length of the tube adjoining the second end closure enclosed With-in the remainder of the tube which adjoins the crown,

said tube being again folded between the ,adjacent closed ends of the tube and the opposite end thereof to `cause the double thickness open end .of the folded tube into encircling relation with the portion of the tube adjoining the crown.

2. The structure of claim 1 and in which said hat crown includes a cross seam intersecting the first named'top seam at substantially right angles, said cross seam being of lesser length than said top seam.

3. The structure of claim 1 and in which said folded tube portions are in .substantially perpendicular relation to said marginal edges of said disk.

4. The structure of 4claim 1 and in which said elongated tube has Igreater stretchability about its circumference thanl vertically.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,485,511 3/1924 Kurtz 2--190 2,069,020 1/ 1937 Schnes-sler 2-20l 2,981,954 5/ l96=1 Garbel-lano 2-2.l 3,035,273 5/1962 Krystal 2-172 JORDAN FRANKLIN, Primary Examiner.

ROBERT V. SLOAN, Examiner. 

1. A CAP COMPRISING, A GENERALLY RESILIENT, STRETCHABLE RECTANGULAR BODY OF KNITTED FABRIC LAMINATED TO A LAYER OF THIN SPONGY MATERIAL SECURED TOGETHER ALONG OPPOSITE EDGES TO PROVIDE AN ELONGATED TUBE, MEANS SECURING OPPOSITE SIDES OF ONE END TOGETHER ALONG A TOP SEAM TO PROVIDE AN ELONGATED CAP CROWN, A RELATIVELY NON-RESILIENT, FLEXIBLE DISK MARGINALLY CONNECTED TO SAID TUBE AT THE OTHER END THEREOF TO FORM A SECOND END CLOSURE, SAID SECOND END CLOSURE BEING FOLDED AGAINST THE INNER SURFACE OF SAID CAP CROWN WITH SUBSTANTIALLY ONE HALF THE LENGTH OF THE TUBE ADJOINING THE SECOND END CLOSURE ENCLOSED WITHIN THE REMAINDER OF THE TUBE WHICH ADJOINS THE CROWN, SAID TUBE BEING AGAIN FOLDED BETWEEN THE ADJACENT CLOSED ENDS OF THE TUBE AND THE OPPOSITE END THEREOF TO CAUSE THE DOUBLE THICKNESS OPEN END OF THE FOLDED TUBE INTO ENCIRCLING RELATION WITH THE PORTION OF THE TUBE ADJOINING THE CROWN. 